Anybody up in here ever caulked a bathtub?

Pro tips?

I'm about to tackle this daunting task for the first time tomorrow. One thing I've read is that you should either stand in the tub while you caulk or fill it 3/4ths full of water first, to make sure the tub sags as much as it will to fill in the gap.

Help me out ILX handy-people.

I have done this. A right pain in the arse it was too. Go easy on the amount of spoodge you apply, it'll get very messy otherwise. Have plenty of clean rags handy, cos if you're anything like as cack-handed as me, you'll need to keep smoothing the sealant down with a wet finger and you end up getting covered in the stuff.

Yeah, from what I'd been reading I was planning to have plenty of clean-up supplies around me. Have you ever used one of those fancy little plastic doo-hickeys that you can run over the caulk to smooth it out? They show them on TV now and then, but I'm not sure they aren't just useless pieces of plastic.

Be sure to wear something expendable. I ruined a nice shirt this way, duh.

Remove as much of the old caulk as you can before putting down the new stuff.

I have done this, and it wasn't too bad, really. I suggest getting the hang of it by caulking along the inside edges of a cardboard box, just for practice.

I used just my fingers for the smoothing part and got a good result, so I'd pass on the plastic doo-hickey.

Have you ever used one of those fancy little plastic doo-hickeys that you can run over the caulk to smooth it out?

Back of a wet teaspoon works just as well.

Thanks. These are the kind of things I was hoping for. It seems like one of those little household tasks everyone should be able to do, but I'm still a little daunted for fear of arsing up our one shower/tub.

If it all goes really wrong, just scrape it off and do it again. There's always plenty of splodge in the tube.

Also, make sure you clean up the area properly to start with. Last thing you want is a stray pube stuck in your seal like a mosquito forever encased in amber.

I've never caulked a tub although my dad's done a lot of bathroom renos (he's a plumber by trade) and I've never seen him fill a tub with water before/during caulking. Just standing in the tub while applying caulking will probably weigh it down enough, plus it'll help you get a cleaner application (might be a bit hard to caulk over a tub full of water). I'm not sure about maybe filling the tub with water post-caulking, so I'll see if I can ask plumber dad for a verdict on that one before tomorrow.

If you mess it up you can always just scrape it away and try again, but it really shouldn't be that bad!

Yeah, I was thinking that the good thing would be able to just strip it all away and try again. Thanks, I'm feeling a little less overwhelmed by the process already!

razor blades or utility knife blades work well for getting the old caulk off, scrape it good.

Right, dad said he'd never heard of filling a bathtub with water while caulking. He said it could make sense for fibreglass tubs with some movement to them, but if he's never used that method I doubt it's a necessity. You shouldn't let any water near the caulking for at least 24 hours after application anyway, so if you do decide to fill the tub up any be careful about that. Happy caulking!

My roommate recaulked, and then our bathroom flooded. Maybe we didn't wait long enough for it to set?

I would use something like this for the scraping & caulking:

http://www.qwikfast.co.uk/catalogue/images/silvscraper763612.jpg